Health care utopia gone wrong: Socialized healthcare causes 9 out of 10 hospitals to be labeled 'unsafe' in the UK

(NaturalNews) As some presidential candidates in the United States run around telling supporters that they can provide "free healthcare" under a socialized medical scheme, one of the countries that essentially founded the concept is struggling to keep their system afloat.

As reported by Britain's Daily Mail, what is happening to the country's National Health Service – once a source of pride for Brits – is a portent of what will happen in the U.S. if Obamacare, which is already imploding, is somehow transformed into one big giant Medicare program.

A new study from the NHS has found that nine out of 10 hospitals are so overcrowded that they have been deemed to be unsafe. Some 33 percent of hospitals ran out of beds at least once this past winter, including some facilities in which that happened roughly every other day. The overcrowding has meant that desperately sick patients needing to be admitted for treatment have had to languish for hours on hospital carts, waiting for beds to open up.

As the Daily Mail reported further:

"Figures show that 143 out of 154 hospital trusts in England are currently more than 85 per cent occupied – the maximum level considered to be safe.

"Patients are more likely to die when this limit is breached because rushed staff make more mistakes and are not able to monitor patients properly for signs of deterioration.

"There is also a higher risk of hospital-acquired infections because staff may not have time to wash their hands properly or clean equipment adequately."

Chronic availability problems and less staff because, well, money

Data analyzed by the government found that 49 hospital trusts ran out of beds at least once since the end of November. They include a facility in North London, North Middlesex Hospital, which ran out of beds 45 times over that period, or once every other day, on average.

Patients waiting on hospital carts are often lined up along hospital walls in hallways until another patient is discharged.

All told, the government's health service reported that hospitals have run out of beds on 517 occasions since last November. On average, hospitals are 94 percent full, up from 92 percent in 2012, and only 79 percent in 1999.

"The huge rise is partly a result of the bed-blocking crisis. Soaring numbers of elderly patients, who do not need to be in hospital for medical reasons, are becoming stuck there because arrangements for their care at home have not been put in place," the Daily Mail reported.

In addition, though, the crisis has been made worse because hospitals have had to slash bed space and close entire wards to cut staff and save money. The UK's Telegraph reported in Sept. 2015 that there were 3.4 million people on hospital waiting lists waiting for procedures, a figure that had risen by one-third since 2010, and which represented the highest number in seven years.

"Perhaps you did not notice the story? It wouldn't be surprising. There are so many stories about the failings of the NHS that we barely register them these days," the paper said in an editorial.

Politicizing the issue never helps but that's what politicians do

Additional data reported by the Daily Mail found that hospital bed capacity in Britain had fallen from 133,000 in 2005, to about 102,000 today, as the population ages and as need increases.

Just as they do in America, elected leaders in Britain choose to politicize the issue rather than come together to solve the problem.

"Under this Tory government hospitals wards have been left dangerously overcrowded and understaffed. This has resulted in a third of hospitals running out of beds over the winter," said Justin Madders, a Labour Party health spokesman. "It is about time this government was honest with the public about their dereliction of duty and the crisis in the NHS that has been created on their watch."

If the British government – and our government – were honest, they would tell their citizens that socialist healthcare cannot work, and will never work, because there will always be more need then there is money to fund that need.